I'm sure there's a lot to learn by re-reading (or at least skimming) this thread from the start. It's a nice case study for a complex, controversial company that in the end didn't work out. Reminds me of the Buffett line about the reputation of the manager and the reputation of the business...

"After two long delays at a morning hearing in bankruptcy court, attorneys for Sears announced it had accepted a revised bid from a hedge fund controlled by Eddie Lampert, the chairman and former CEO of Sears. The deal would keep 425 of the stores open. Lampertís $4.4 billion offer does not complete the sale, but rather starts an auction that is due to be completed on January 14. It is still possible that those wishing to shutdown the company will bid more for the assets than Lampert is offering."

Well, after all of these years ESL's master plan finally comes to light.

He will have effectively shifted most of the assets from the public's pocket into his pocket at a discount to face value.

Won't be surprised when this is on VC or SumZero has some "residual value is left now that a decade of lawsuits are over and stock trades for a penny" pitch up in 2030.

Maybe Bruce and Eddie can get together and finally take that picture of the last two shares, one share in each hand with them smiling. They should do the photo-op on St Joe land..

That's how it seemed for a long time now, but I do wonder if that was his Plan B. That is, maybe he really thought he was going to make it work but even if he couldn't it would be tails he wins heads you lose sort of thing.

If you buy the bonds at Interactive Brokers and it converts to equity, what does that look like logistically? Will they deliver the new equity there automatically? Do you have to pay a significant corporate action fee? I've not been through one of these before.